#redblazer – it's gonna be a thing

July 13, 2016July 13, 2016

Welcome to the PNW

Another morning, another day of driving. We woke up and made ourselves breakfast at Danielle’s place, the first time we’d been able to do that since we had left two weeks earlier. It was so nice to be able to cook again, even if it was just eggs and bacon. After saying thank you, grabbing some snacks and cookies from the road, and goodbye, we were on our way for our 10 hour roadtrip to Portland. As we drove up, I made the executive decision that we would be stopping in Napa Valley, and at the very least pickup a bottle of wine. After a bit of driving and some slight frustration at the lack of being able to find what we were looking for, we pulled into the driveway of the Truchard Vineyards. At first it seemed closed and neither of us were too happy about it, but then someone came up and asked how they could help us. We said we were just looking to buy a bottle of wine, and he immediately brought us to the cellar where we got to choose what we wanted. He recommended the Pinot Noir, and since I love red wine, I went for it. I tried it a few days later, and it was pretty damn good.

Again, we were on our way north. At this point in the trip we were really exhausted, and ready to arrive at some sort of destination. We were also a bit bummed that we weren’t able to squeeze in Yosemite and Lake Tahoe, but since there wasn’t much we could do, we had to grin and bear it.

I drove, Mike slept; Mike drove, I slept. The cycle continued throughout the entire drive but soon, we were entering volcano country and I started getting excited. Mount Shasta was the first one we saw in northern California, and just seeing the huge size of it made me excited to see my favorite volcano, Mount Rainier. Soon (but not soon enough) we arrived in Portland and settled into our AirBnB. It was a quiet day, which we much needed, but also a long and tough one. We went to bed ready for Seattle, which we were finally going to drive to the next day.